Deputy Coroner and Coroner Help Save a Life

04/09/13 Marshall County Deputy Coroner Lisa Richards and County Coroner Bill Cleavenger helped save a man’s life Monday afternoon at a minor property damage accident at the intersection of North Michigan and Baker Streets in Plymouth.

The pair was returning to Plymouth from an earlier fatal accident in Bremen, and stopped behind traffic from the Baker Street crash. The County Dispatch Center radioed a call that said a man involved in the crash was experiencing a heart attack.

Richards and Cleavenger immediately radioed Marshall County Dispatch and informed them that they were a block and a half away and would be responding with an AED (Automated external defibrillator).

As the pair pulled up alongside the accident scene, they noticed an unresponsive driver in one of the vehicles. They retrieved the AED from the coroner’s vehicle and began efforts to revive the driver.

Richards, a paramedic-firefighter with the Plymouth Fire Department, applied the AED while Cleavenger began chest compressions. Moments later paramedics from the Plymouth Fire Department arrived on scene along with the police and fire department and took over patient care. The driver was transported to the Saint Joseph Regional Medical Center in Plymouth where he was being evaluated. Assisting also were Marshall County Police Officers and the Indiana State Police.

County Coroner Bill Cleavenger said that he and Richards had also had a death invesitgation earlier in the morning outside of Plymouth before being dispatched to Bremen for the fatal accident.

Chief Deputy, and former Coroner, John Grolich had been instrumental in furnishing all county emergency vehicles with portable AEDs. Cleavenger said people used to sometimes be amused that there was a sign in the window of the coroner’s vehicle that said it was equiped with an AED. “Today was an example of the importance of having that equipment,” Cleavenger said.

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